Gamescom 2014: Community in Rage with Rise of the Tomb Raider be “temporary” XBox One Exclusive [update]

In E3 2014, when Square Enix announced Rise of the Tomb Raider, they didn’t tell us what platforms the game would be release. But assuming that Tomb Raider was release for Microsoft, Sony consoles and PC the most natural assumption was that they would launch the game for all platform, but…

Today in Gamescon, Crystal Dynamics’s Darrell Gallagher explained, “we believe this will be a step to really forging the Tomb Raider brand as one of the biggest in gaming, with the help, belief and backing of a major partner like Microsoft.” He continued, “This doesn’t mean that we’re walking away from our fans who only play on PlayStation or on PC. Those are great systems, with great partners, and amazing communities. We have Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris coming to those platforms this December, and Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition is available on PS4.”

And of course after less of 2 hours after this announce, with comments over 3000 and counting. The fans are in total rage with Crystal:

This is an absolutely disgusting move clearly driven by nothing more than Microsoft’s willingness to throw around massive amounts of money to buy exclusivity. Of course in the long run, you’ll lose out massively as the Xbox One market is small and the gap is only going to widen.

I’ve been a Tomb Raider fan since the beginning, I even stuck with the series through the Angel of Darkness days and I’ve watched it blossom in recent years under the care of Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider made me want to make games – it made me want to write kick-ass female protagonists. It’s a part of me.

You decided to take money from Microsoft for an exclusive? If you’re comfortable with that decision, be honest about it and live with the consequences. Don’t try to hide and lie to the consumers you supposedly value so much.

And too many more. In my opinion the rage around the fans have a good reason. If we consider that the Tomb Raider series was born for PC and Sony Consoles, and it grew where it is today thanks to these two community it is clear that there is a certain lack of respect for the fans of the series, but games are business and money talks and even more for a company with financial problems.

In my opinion again, the game is very possibly temporary, the main reason is would be really too expensive to keep the game eternally exclusive for XBox One Console and a big risk for Crystal. Besides the stupid reason of escape the tradition of releasing Tomb Raider for Sony console.

I will update with a single imagem from Geoff Keighley (Videogame journalist)’s Twitter post and an “answer” from Aaron Greenberg (Microsoft Studios Global Manager]

UPDATED:

UPDATED AGAIN:

Microsoft’s exclusivity contract with publisher Square Enix “has a duration,” Xbox head Phil Spencer confirmed in an interview with Eurogamer.